


Worthy

by SonOfGondor



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, fixing the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 21:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18646240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonOfGondor/pseuds/SonOfGondor
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERSSteve goes back in time to live out his life, but this time he takes Bucky with him.





	Worthy

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time writing for this fandom so I hope I'm doing it right. Let me know?

“I need to do this alone,” Steve says. He looks to Sam and wishes he could tell him. But if he did, he’d try to stop him. Does he sense this is goodbye?

“I understand.”

“Will you hold onto this for me?” Steve hands his shield over to Sam. “If… you know,” Steve sighs. “The world needs Captain America.”

Sam’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Yes. Of course.” He holds it up uncomfortably. “Just until you get back, right?”

“Yeah.” Steve tries to nod, but lying comes hard, especially if they both know they are. “Just until I’m back.”

“I’ll hold onto it then.”

“Thanks, Sam.” He finally looks away, to Bucky.

“Buck…” He takes his hand and looks to the platform. “Are you ready?”

“I am.”

“Come on then.”

 

* * *

 

It’s not too hard putting the stones back where they came from. It’s just tedious, because the slightest misstep could mess up the present. The future. What happened, what _will_ happen. But Bucky’s there with him, every step of the way. He understands wordlessly. And then they’re back, back at Peggy’s door.

“Are you ready, Steve?”

“I am.”

 

* * *

 

Rumor has it that Peggy Carter’s husband is more than he seems. He looks like that Captain America guy, but all official records say he died. Nobody dares say so in her presence, but the people talk. They talk about the handsome blond guy that sometimes visits her during work, they whisper about his visits to her office. They don’t notice how slowly HYDRA is disappearing, how the remnants of the Nazi’s die, never to return. They don’t even connect him with the guy with the hammer in his hands and lighting in his veins, who shows up once and again. The people whisper he is Thor, others disagree, but they all agree he is a force for good. Captain America is dead, they eventually agree. And Steve? Steve becomes just Peggy Carter’s husband.

Rumor has it that they house a Russian spy. He’s silent and stand-offish and hardly smiles, and he always conceals his arms. Nobody dares say so in her presence, but the people talk. They say he’s a spy that ran away, searching for her protection in exchange for Russian secrets. They don’t connect him with the winter soldier, the man saving lives in return for the ones he once took. They don’t notice how he looks at Steve, how they hold hands in private, and how they kiss behind closed doors.

The people don’t know and Steve intends to keep it that way.

 

* * *

 

“Why did you come here, Steve?” Peggy asks. He looks at her face, lines etched into her skin, results of worry and nights full of work. “You could have stayed. You could have had an easier life with him.”

Bucky doesn’t reply.

“I loved you too, Peggy. You were too important to take into the future.”

“Steve,” she shakes her head. “I really am not.”

“You are. I thought I had to choose,” Steve sighs and looks at Bucky. “But I didn’t.”

“You could have done so much good.”

“Nothing Sam can’t do. And I can do good here. Now.”

“They think you’re Thor,” Bucky laughs carefully. “They think I’m a Russian spy.”

“That’s hardly fair.” Peggy admits. Her eyes are piercing as she looks at Bucky. “Don’t you think?”

“I’ve been called worse.” Bucky looks down. “I’ve done worse.”

“No longer, Buck.” Steve puts a hand on his knee. “It wasn’t you. This is you.”

“Thor’s sidekick?”

Steve laughs and shakes his head. “Thor would get a kick out of this.”

“He will.”

“But you don’t have to be Thor’s sidekick. Not just because I’m not Thor.”

“That’s not what the people say.”

Steve can feel a blush coming on. It feels wrong handling the hammer sometimes, like he’s taking something from a dear friend. But then again, it fits perfectly in the palm of his hand, the weight heavy enough to be reassuring but never so heavy it weights him down.

 

* * *

 

The hammer is lying on the table, and Peggy, Steve and Bucky sit around it.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Peggy asks.

“Proving a point,” he says. “I hope.”

It’s a strange déjà-vu. He’s done this before, in the future. He remembers Tony’s try, when even his glove with jets didn’t lift it. He wonders if, if he lived, he’d have been able to lift it after… after the snap. And Natasha, who didn’t even try. He wonders if she could have. He looks at Bucky and sees the same look in his eyes.

“No,” he says. “Steve, you know what I’ve done. No way that thing is gonna let me lift it.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“You’re not like me. You’re the perfect shining hero of America.”

“I’ve done things. Made mistakes.”

“Not like me.”

“Buck, please.” Steve pleads. He looks over to his wife. “Peggy?”

“What?” She laughs. “Me? No way.”

“Try it.”

“No,” she holds her hands up. “Not me.”

“Come on.”

She laughs and shakes her head, but gets up nonetheless. “Fine. But you’ll see me fail.”

“I won’t.”

She grips the handle and for a split second Steve thinks he made a terrible mistake. He wanted to cheer his partners up, but if –

And then she lifts it up.

“Holy –”

The hammer almost flies up as if she tried to lift a box of bricks that turned out to be feathers. Peggy’s eyes grow big and she curses under her breath.

“I did not…” She looks over at Steve. “This is a fake, right?”

“Nope. This is the real deal.”

She shakes her head and laughs. “That’s crazy.”

“Not to me.”

Peggy blushes and looks down, then she hands it back to Steve. “It’s yours.”

He takes it back and the weight sits comfortably in his palm. “Buck?”

“Steve. Really. I don’t want to know.”

“I think you do.” Steve puts it down on the table again. “And I think I know the answer.”

“Steve, with all due respect for America’s and its fine ass, but you’re an idiot. I’ve killed people.”

“That wasn’t you.”

“The hammer doesn’t know that!” He gestures to it as if he expects a reaction. “It’ll judge me.”

“It only judges whether or not you’re worthy.”

Bucky shakes his head again. “Exactly. I’m not.” ‘

Steve sighs. “Okay. It doesn’t matter.”

Bucky doesn’t answer.

“It matters what I think. And I love you, Buck.”

“I love you too.”

 

* * *

 

A figure sneaks down the stairs of the Carter-Rogers-Barnes household. He looks around and then into the living room. The hammer is right where Steve left it, on the table. The figure takes a deep breath and walks up to it.

“I don’t need to know,” he whispers to himself. “It doesn’t matter.”

But it does.

He wraps his hand around the handle and shakes his head.

“This is crazy.”

He looks around one more time and then pulls.

 

* * *

 

The next day, when all three wake up again, only Bucky wonders if Steve will notice he didn’t put it back exactly where he left it.


End file.
